Lebanon continues to confront an unprecedented financial and economic crisis facilitated by a history of violence, volatility, and social inequality that has undermined the subsistence capacity of already vulnerable populations. The country continues hosting the largest numbers of refugees per capita in the world (almost 1 in 3), estimated at 1.5 million displaced Syrians along with 31,400 Palestine refugees from Syria, 35,000 Lebanese returnees, and a pre-existing population of more than 174,422 Palestine refugees, and risks for new displacement waves are rising with a deteriorating geopolitical environment. This multi-layered crisis has devastating impacts on the social, economic and environmental capital of the country and, increasingly, on its social cohesion and stability as well.

Communities hosting large numbers of displaced populations have to face, with inadequate institutional capacities, fast-dwindling resources, and insufficient collective approach, the lingering consequences of the Syrian displacement crisis, exacerbated since 2019 by a severe economic, fiscal and governance meltdown, while pressure from climate change keeps increasing. This state-of-affairs undermines their capacity to cope with the immediate impacts of the compounded crisis – including breakdowns in essential services, rising poverty and the stiffening of inter- and intra-community tensions – and curtails their ability to overcome systemic challenges through a development approach, including, but not limited to, the protracted presence of displaced populations with no durable solutions in sight.

The Lebanon Host Community Support Project – Phase 2 (LHSP 2.0) Project builds upon the long accumulated experience and lessons learnt of implementing the LHSP since 2014. LHSP 2.0 proposes to anchor more firmly stabilization activities into an integrated local development paradigm, to work more at an area-based level in clusters and unions and to strengthen its support to municipal capacity development, in order to increase impact and sustainability of stabilization support.

At the local level, the LHSP 2.0 aims to help increase coping and sustainable development capacities in host communities and create a more enabling environment for mitigating and preventing tensions by: 

1. reducing perceived competition between different population groups over public services, livelihood and economic opportunities by helping to maintain and increase service outputs and create economic opportunities, in a context of acute incapacitation of the public and private sectors to maintain their levels of operations and to mitigate negative crisis impacts over populations, Lebanese, displaced or refugees; and
2. providing conflict-sensitive and inclusive dialogue and decision-making spaces where different components of local communities can explore and agree peacefully on their common interests and build their own pathway to a more sustainable future.

The Project has four outputs:

2- Scope of Work 

Under the direct supervision of the Senior Engineers and the overall guidance of the Chief Technical Advisor, the incumbent will perform the following functions:

a)  Provide support in the Procurement process and related tasks:

• Oversee adherence to administrative, and technical requirements, assuring compliance to UNDP’s rules and regulations.
• Focal point for the engineering and procurement units following up on MEMOs, NTFs, Eval docs, certificates of completions, performances.
• Review terms of reference (TOR) of services, civil work, and goods projects, making sure that all their required docs are included and share with the procurement prior posting on UNALL.
• Review and clear the evaluation report in coordination with the engineering unit prior submitting on Quantum.
• Maintain implementation schedules for ongoing projects and track their progress against baselines.
• Overview and Assist Procurement Assistants’ work in support to the procurement processes.

b) Responsible for delivery, tracking and budget support related tasks:

• Follow up and monitor deadlines for payment milestones of contracts / POs and ensure all the payments within the Donor (s) deadline.
• Keep track of expenditures in relation to direct implementation of activities
• Coordinate closely with the LHSP M&E-Reporting Officer, Head of Engineering Unit, and the Senior Adm/Finance Officer, and tracking of activities.
• Prepare Logs for procurement plans, funds and budget tracking and regular activity updates.

c) Provide support for effective administrative control of the project.

• Prepare engineering logs, send them daily to the concern parties and coordinate with all the concerned parties in order to make sure that the documents are well received.
• Prepare timely field reports on progress of various projects.
• Assist in the preparation of monthly, quarterly and final progress reports.
• Manage and administer all contracts related to projects under his/her responsibility.
• Keep accurate records and archives of all projects/activities, including financial records, data, pictures, reports, correspondence and minutes with respective municipalities and contractors.
• To Support LHSP team with additional tasks as required.

d) Support knowledge building, knowledge sharing and capacity building relevant to the assigned project.

• Participate in training and organize briefings on internal procedures for the project staff.
• Provide support to other capacity building activities, including to the design and delivery of tools, materials for workshops, or platforms that tap into the collective intelligence of communities and mobilize action.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

3- Institutional Arrangement

The Administrative and Procurement Associate will be working under direct supervision of the Senior Engineers and the overall guidance of the Chief Technical Advisor.

4- Competencies

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies

5- Minimum Qualifications of the Successful NPSA

  6- The following documents shall be required from the applicants:

1. Personal CV or P11, indicating all past positions held and their main underlying functions, their durations (month/year), the qualifications, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate, and at least three (3) the most recent professional references of previous supervisors. References may also include peers.
2. A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) indicating why the candidate considers him-/herself to be suitable for the position.
3. Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns or other materials.